1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates generally to a method and apparatus for testing adhesives and sealants. More particularly, the present disclosure is directed to a probe holder assembly adapted to perform an end to end test of adhesives and sealants.
2. Background of the Related Art
The use of adhesives and sealants are an important aspect of medical practice. They can be used for a variety of indications including, but not limited to, homeostatsis, hemostasis, wound closure and fistula repair that may be caused by trauma or a medical procedure. Medical adhesives or sealants are capable of bonding tissue surfaces together quickly while promoting or at least not inhibiting normal healing.
The American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) has developed a standard for testing properties of tissue adhesives in tension. ASTM F2258-05 entitled “Standard Test Method for Strength Properties of Tissue Adhesive in Tension”, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference, describes the procedure for testing medical adhesives and sealants. In the above mentioned standard, a tissue specimen is applied to a probe and another tissue specimen is secured to a base. The test adhesive or sealant is applied to the tissue specimen secured to the base and the probe is lowered into the adhesive or sealant. The adhesive or sealant is allowed to cure and then the probe is pulled back and the force is measured to determine the adhesive properties of the test material.
When an adhesive or sealant is applied, such adhesive or sealant tends to cure or harden at a rapid rate, sometimes instantaneously. As such, when a batch of the adhesive material is created, by the time the adhesive properties of the material have been tested using the above described standard, the batch has cured and a new batch has to be created to test the sample again. This has many disadvantages in that it increases the time needed to test the adhesives or sealants on different tissue specimens and each batch that is created may not be the same as a previous batch which may result in a wide range of values for the adhesive properties of the test material.